Chapter 1

My name is Jack. I live in Seattle, which is controlled by a group of self-proclaimed wizards. I was born in 2000 on January 1st at 12:01 a.m., making me the first person to be born post-convergence. I had a pretty rough childhood. Both my parents died to magic sickness and the government collapsed, making life harder. This year I start college on a scholarship I earned for advanced magic theory, even though I know very little about magic; but apparently I'm "gifted."

Today marked the second day of class. The room was a large lecture hall with layered rows of desks. To my right was a cat lady who would occasionally shoot me death glares, and to my left, a scrawny elf who never looked up from the notes he was writing. The bell rang and the professor entered the room. He was a tall, slender elf with a pair of red tinted spectacles and a burgundy suit. The elf walked to the podium, set down a packet of papers, and looked around the room for a moment before looking up at the center of the room and saying a single word that seemed to ring throughout the room. "Listen." It seemed to mesmerize the other students, making them sit up and listen intently. I looked at the cat lady next to me, who was staring at the teacher like he was the most interesting thing in the world. I looked back to the teacher who was staring at me with a look of surprise before regaining his composure. "Greetings, my name is Adran Amakiir, and what you have all witnessed was the spell 'Command'. Our first lesson will be on the components of a spell. 'Command,' for instance, simply requires a verbal component in the form of a one word command." The elf reached into a small pouch and pulled out a gem just large enough to fit into the palm of his hand and a small wand with a red gem in the handle. "Other spells may require a material component such as a diamond," he held up the gem. "However, if the material component is not consumed for the spell then it can be substituted with an arcane focus such as this." Adran held the wand up and then put both items back into the small pouch. "Now some spells may require some movements or gestures to direct the flow of magic during the spell. Observe." Adran then began making hand gestures with one hand and muttering under his breath. Dust and detritus around the room began to flow into a ball hovering just above his hand. "This spell is 'Prestidigitation,' and as the name suggests, it is a minor magical trick. This is known as a cantrip, simple spells that aren't hard to memorize and take almost no mana to cast. I think that's all the time we have for today. Homework is to memorize the effects and casting of the spell 'Prestidigitation.' There will be a practical examination next class." Adran waved his hand and a case on the floor flopped open and a set of small books flew out and landed in front of each student. "These are your grimoire. This is where you can store your spells. I've put Prestidigitation in them to start, but you will need to fill in any others you may learn."

I sat up and twisted my neck each way, producing a popping sound. As I was walking to the door, Adran stopped me. "I need to speak with you privately, Jack."

I stepped into Adran's office, which was impossibly large for the proportions of the building. It smelled distinctly of lavender and pine, and was lined with books of many colors and sizes. Adran turned to me with a quizzical look and asked, "How much do you know about magic?"

 I sat there for a moment giving him a dead stare as I thought of my response. "Well, the sum of all my magical knowledge was covered in today's lesson."

 Adran looked at me for a second before looking at the ground and massaging his temples with one hand covering most of his face, then he stopped for a moment, "How did you even get in my class?" He looked at me with disbelief.

 "I don't know really," I replied dumbly, "I got a scholarship for advanced magic theory and I couldn't afford to correct their mistakes."

Adran slumped into a chair next to his desk and buried his face in his hands. "I see," he looked up and continued, "well, I thought you may have had a better understanding of magic, seeing as you resisted my command spell, but it seems to have just been luck. You may go. The next lesson will be a practical test of Prestidigitation, so practice." I quickly left the room and hurried down the hall. It was busy; not enough to stagger the flow through the halls, but enough to be uncomfortable. As I made my way down the hall, I noticed that many of the other students stopped and stared with a look of disdain as I passed. Was there something on my face? I decided it was best if I didn't dwell on it and tried practicing Prestidigitation on my way to my dorm. It was surprisingly simple, and easy to master. The spell could do many things that had no obvious use like creating sensory effects-nothing major, but you could change the way something smells- or creating some sparks or a small light, even a small object or illusion. As I walked down the hall, I was practicing by creating several gold coins and having them orbit my hands while making myself smell of lavender. If I didn't have everyone's attention before, I certainly did now, although now instead of a look of disdain it was a look of amazement. I was so absorbed in my parlor tricks that I didn't notice the high elf possy standing in my way up until I ran into them. I looked up from my tricks, which vanished.

 "Oh, sorry, can I help you?" 

The elves looked down at me. "Enjoy your petty tricks, human, they are the only magic you will ever be capable of."

I stared at them for a second. "I asked if I could help you, not for your opinions on the magical capabilities of humans," I said as smugly as I possibly could, then flipped them an illusionary coin that vanished just before it landed on the floor.

 The head elf grinned, "Neat trick. Here, let us show you what real magic looks like." He raised his hand and began chanting as flames coalesced in his hand. All I could think was, "Oh shit." He reeled back and hurled the bolt of flame, which whizzed just past my head and into the wall, blowing debris over other students who were now fleeing. I looked back to the elf who was preparing another fire bolt with a sadistic grin twisting across his face. I felt hopeless as he was reeling back to hurl the second bolt. As the bolt sped towards me, I closed my eyes to wait for the inevitable, when I felt a spark somewhere deep inside my soul, like a river long since dammed was bursting forth. I felt power welling up from inside me with such intensity that I could do nothing but open my eyes and scream, "RAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHH!" Searing pain rendered my body numb as a blinding light flowed forth from me.

My body felt numb. I opened my eyes to see an endless sea of stars spanning before me that I was seemingly floating in. Suddenly they seemed to stretch away from me until there was no light, only the void. Then I woke up, staring at the ceiling of the university hall with a massive headache. I sat up and was shocked by the scorch marks making a ring around where i was laying. I stood up and noticed a halfling student who was shoved face first into a locker, whether by someone else or themselves it was impossible to tell. I  stood up and groggily walked over and tried pulling the halfling out of the locker before he immediately started screaming, "BY THE GODS, DON'T KILL ME!"

 I glared at him for a second and shouted, "I'm not going to kill you! Shut the hell up, my head is killing me!" I glanced around at the barren hallway. "Where did everyone go?"

 The halfling looked around. "I don't know, I don't know how long I've been in that locker." I looked at the halfling for a moment. He came up to my waist but had the same proportions as a normal sized teenager; he was honestly a bit disturbing to look at. 

"What was the last thing you saw before you were shoved into the locker?"

The halfling looked thoughtfully at the ground putting his hand on his chin, "Well you just ran into Alaris and his cronies, then there was a lot of screaming and I got shoved into the locker by the crowd as they fled."

 I stared at him for a moment with a look of disappointment.  "Wow, the only useful information there was was the elf's name, otherwise you know less than I do." 

The halfing glared at me and huffed, "Hey, it's not my fault no one watches where they're going."

 I sighed and looked around, the windows had been blown out and scorch marks danced down the hall like lightning. I decided it would be best if I tried to find someone who was here earlier to tell me what happened when I blacked out.